Kamala Harris says Biden warned her about power brokers before debate with Trump, leaving her angry

Kamala Harris says a late-night phone call from Joe Biden before the only 2024 debate with Donald Trump left her angry and puzzled, detailing the exchange in a forthcoming memoir.

The account, drawn from an excerpt of Harris’s book 107 Days published by The Guardian, portrays a moment when then-President Biden spoke to his vice president-to-be while she sat in a hotel room preparing for the high-stakes confrontation in Philadelphia. Harris writes that Biden’s call included a disclosure from his brother about a group of power brokers in Philadelphia and an implicit warning that they might not back her because she had been critical of him. "My brother called. He’s been talking to a group of real power brokers in Philly," Biden reportedly told Harris, according to the excerpt. He then asked whether Harris was familiar with several people tied to the matter, which she says she did not know.

"His brother had told him that those guys were not going to support me because I’d been saying bad things about him. He wasn’t inclined to believe it, he claimed, but he thought I should know in case my team had been encouraging me to put daylight between the two of us," Harris writes. The exchange, she says, left her confused, angry and disappointed, and she describes Biden as turning her attention away from the moment’s urgency toward concerns about hostile power brokers in one of the country’s most influential cities. The Guardian’s excerpt notes that Biden then shifted to discussing his own past debate performances, a moment Harris characterized as deflective and personal rather than focused on the race at hand.

The hotel-room moment occurred as Harris prepared for the only debate of her abbreviated campaign season, a showdown with then-presidential hopeful Trump that carried outsized significance for the Democratic ticket. Former First Gentleman Doug Emhoff, aware of his wife’s distress, reportedly advised her to let it go before taking the stage. Harris writes that the pre-debate call left her unsettled about how the campaign was being conducted and how much weight was being given to internal party dynamics rather than the electoral task ahead.

The memoir excerpt underscores broader tensions that Harris has discussed in public remarks and interviews about the 2024 cycle, including how the campaign navigated expectations and internal calculus about running mates and messaging. In other sections released ahead of the book’s publication, Harris reflects on the refrain that had become a stock phrase in Democratic circles—"it’s Joe and Jill’s decision"—and describes it as a moment she now views as potentially reckless given the stakes of the race. The Atlantic published a separate excerpt in which Harris characterizes the mantra as a sign of grave risk rather than grace, suggesting that decisions affecting the ticket should rest on more than personal ego or ambition.

Harris also reveals in the book that Pete Buttigieg was her first choice for running mate, though she ultimately deemed it too risky given the era’s political and demographic considerations. She writes that choosing a running mate who would be a historic pick—a woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man—posed a daunting challenge that could have amplified scrutiny and backlash. The revelation adds another layer to the portrait of a campaign navigating highly visible, identity-centered questions while trying to unite a broad coalition of voters.

Public reaction to the book’s excerpts has been swift, with conservative outlets highlighting the tensions between the two top elected officials and the broader narrative the memoir adds to the 2024 campaign. Harris’s forthcoming memoir, set to be released on Sept. 23, has already sparked conversations about how personal dynamics within the White House and the campaign shaped political decisions during a consequential election year. The Guardian and The Atlantic excerpts provide the most detailed account yet of a moment when the vice president-to-be says she felt her focus was being redirected toward intraparty politics rather than the public task ahead.

As the 2024 cycle progressed, Harris largely steered clear of overt criticism of Biden on the campaign trail, choosing instead to emphasize common goals and the broader mission of the Democratic ticket. The memoir’s disclosures, however, add texture to the historical record of a campaign that contended with internal disagreements, strategic risk, and the enormous pressure of delivering a unity message while facing a well-known and combative opponent.

More excerpts from Harris’s book indicate that she weighed the campaign’s structure and messaging against the realities of a national political landscape that demanded both resilience and caution. The memoir paints a portrait of a campaign navigating the line between loyalty to a president and the imperative to chart a course that could be perceived as independent and credible to voters across the political spectrum. The release date is slated for Sept. 23, and publishers have described the work as a candid account of a defining period in American politics, offering readers a window into the pressures and decisions that shaped one of the most watched presidential campaigns in recent memory.

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